It looks a little different this morning.......
Anyway, enough of frivolity - an update on the horses.
Yesterday could have been a complete disaster as we very nearly lost Aitch.
It was four o'clock, I had done the orders and was about to pop to the shops to get the food in for Joseph and Sophie when I noticed that Aitch was on three legs - he had got his hind leg caught in the strap of his rug probably while rolling, I rushed over to him to try and undo the rug when I heard this spurting sound, and saw to my horror that there was blood spouting out of a wound and splashing on what was left of his rug - Leon was standing next to him looking somewhat worried and he was also covered in blood. I phoned the vet whilst struggling to undo the rug, managed to get it off, and then walked Aitch into the yard trying to stem the bleeding at the same time. I had to make the decision whether to leave him to bleed while I found a bandage or to try and stop the bleeding with my fingers until the vet came - I decided to do the former, and typically it took a lot longer than I would have liked to find a bandage and lintex - anyway, to cut a long story short I managed to stop the bleeding with a pressure bandage until the vet arrived half an hour later. Luckily Aitch was the most wonderful patient as if he hadn't have been things would have been very different. The vet wanted to try and stitch it but when he took the bandage off it started to pump again so he decided to pressure wrap it and hope for the best. Thankfully this worked and when the vet visited again this afternoon he was delighted with the fact that the puncture in the artery had closed and there was no swelling or infection. Thank goodness.
Apart from that drama the other horses are going really well except Leon is getting a lot of flat work as he struggles to trot up hills and needs to learn to use his back end and Doris was going brilliantly but seems to have pulled a muscle in her shoulder, Tory (the masseur) came to see Leon and her this afternoon and didn't think it was anything too serious.
Tomorrow we are going to Cheltenham - it is the beginning of the new National Hunt season- YIPPEE!!
